GUWAHATI: Not the Arunachal Pradesh government, the All Arunachal Pradesh Students’ Union (AAPSU) will enforce a lockdown “anytime and anywhere” in the state if the COVID-19 situation worsens.
There has been a steady rise in the number of cases. The state so far recorded 91 cases.
The AAPSU, which is Arunachal’s apex students’ body, said the lockdown would depend on the assessment of the situation by health experts that it was in touch with.
“If the health experts feel there is a chance of community transmission of the disease, we will call for a lockdown irrespective of the state government’s position,” AAPSU vice president Meje Taku told journalists in Itanagar.
He said the move should not be construed as against the state government stating that it was fighting for the state’s indigenous populace. Arunachal has a population of 12.6 lakh, according to a headcount carried out in 2012.
The AAPSU’s fear about community transmission of COVID-19 stemmed from a frontline worker testing positive recently. It felt the government must rise to the occasion before it was too late.
Given the threat posed by the pandemic, the students’ body insisted that the educational institutes must not be asked to reopen before August 31. Classes taken online in the state could not cover a whole lot of students due to issues including connectivity.
The AAPSU demanded the classification of zones such as red, orange, and green. It also demanded that people be kept in the loop on the quarantine centres in order that they could take precautionary measures.
The students’ union insisted that all COVID-19 warriors are periodically tested and re-tested for free. It urged the government to facilitate if people volunteer to get tested on payment.